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Stories   >   Fortepiano makes all the difference! Sir Andras Schiff's 'Schubert: Sonatas & Impromptus' is LIMELIGHT'S 'instrumental recording of the year'

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Fortepiano makes all the difference! Sir Andras Schiff's 'Schubert: Sonatas & Impromptus' is LIMELIGHT'S 'instrumental recording of the year'

Posted: November 20, 2019

While 2018 was a good year for the big labels as far as the Limelight Awards were concerned, if there's a winner in 2019 it would have to be living composers. Out of the final 25 recordings, a remarkable six living composers are represented: Arvo Pärt, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Nigel Westlake, Steve Reich, Kaija Saariaho and George Benjamin. If you go back to the original 100 recordings that made the long lists, you can add 11 more names. It was all change too in the battle between the big guns and the boutique labels. Last year saw Andris Nelsons' recording of Shostakovich's Symphonies Nos 4 and 11 carry off the top prize with major labels winning three out of five categories. This year it's a different kettle of fish with connoisseur labels triumphing across the board. And whereas last year Australian recordings made a relatively poor showing, this year 14 of them made the final 100, with two making the shortlist of 25 and one of them winning a top honour. As far as repertoire goes, it's a pretty even split between familiar fare and rarities, with music by underrated composers such as Busoni, Korngold, Kabalevsky and Charpentier among the latter. And now, read on…

 

Fortepiano makes all the difference.

Instrumental Recording of the Year

SIR ANDRÁS SCHIFF'S BORN AGAIN SCHUBERT GUARANTEES IMPROMTU REVELATIONS APLENTY

 

Schubert has always been very close to my heart. the Klavierstücke, and the Impromptus were part of my student years. Of course, the last sonatas came much later, they are not really for children. – Sir András Schiff
 

András Schiff's purchase of a fortepiano in 2010 transformed a long-held fascination with the instrument into a full-blown love affair that has blossomed into admired recordings of Beethoven and Schubert, to whose late piano sonatas he returns on disc. He's playing no ordinary fortepiano: a Franz Brodmann model dating from around 1820 – perfect for late Schubert – it once belonged to Karl I, the optimistically titled last ruler of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Schiff describes it as having "something quintessentially Viennese in its timbre, its tender mellowness, its melancholic cantabilità", qualities that come to the fore time and again in these fascinating, quietly ravishing, insightful and often moving performances. - Michael Quinn

 

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